Mickey Arthur says sacking caused immense damage to career

Mickey Arthur says sacking caused immense damage to career

Mickey Arthur has blamed Cricket Australia (CA) for forcing him to take legal action over his "unfair" sacking as coach of the national team and said the incident had caused major damage to his career and reputation.

South African Arthur, the first non-Australian to coach the team, had a contract until 2015 but was sacked and replaced by Darren Lehmann in June, just weeks before the start of the Ashes series against England.

Arthur subsequently filed a case with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in Australia, demanding $3.6 million in compensation or reinstatement as coach.

On his arrival in Perth on Sunday, the 45-year-old said he had hoped for a private resolution but failed to establish contact with senior CA officials despite multiple attempts.

"After my dismissal I received nothing in writing from Cricket Australia, no contact and no payment at all, not even of my basic leave pay until I was forced to bring in lawyers to assist in the process," Arthur said in a statement.

"I was really trying for a private resolution that would not have any collateral damage to the reputation of any of us, the Australian team, Australian cricket, or me.

"I thought, perhaps naively, that, under all the circumstances of my dismissal, that Cricket Australia would be willing to have sensible and good faith talks in private."

Shocked and devastated

"I had received a positive appraisal on all my key performance indicators just prior to departing for the Ashes tour," Arthur said, adding that he hoped Wednesday's conciliation talks with the board at FWC would be fruitful.

"I am told that David Warner's conduct was 'the last straw' for the board. I received no hearing at all over that issue, and no one was doing more to improve discipline in the young Australian team than I was."

In what became known as "homework-gate", Arthur dropped Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja from the third test in India for failing to provide their thoughts on how Australia could improve in an e-mail.